Apparently ESPN long ago figured out the answer to a very intriguing question which has been baffling most adults over the age of 40 for the past decade or so. That question is, since droves of children nationwide end up abandoning participation in youth sports after the age of 12 (e.g., the National Alliance On Youth Sports has reported that 70% of kids who participate in organized youth sports quit these activities entirely by the time they reach the age of 13 years old), then where in the heck are they all going, and how are they occupying all of this newly found free time?
Well, like most of us adult cynics, we might presume that the primary answer is that they've all headed to the couch or bedroom to plop themselves in front of video games or glue their noses to Facebook and You Tube. And in large part this is true. In fact, a recent study published by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that the amount of time teens and adolescents devote to "entertainment media" continued to rise dramatically, with kids spending more than 7 1/2 hours per day (per day??!) attached to computers, phones, TV's and video consoles. But any parent of a child between ages 11 and 18 would not be surprised by that. And, for that matter, most adults I know have also had their own use of computers and cell phones increase rather substantially in the last 10 years (ya' think!?), although I saw no data from Kaiser on adult Blackberry addictions or Farmville fanaticism! So when early teens finally escape the clutches of parents and coaches whose zealotry for sports can no longer hold these burgeoning young adults captive to their oppressive and controlling organizations (okay, that was a bit cynical), where do these kids land? According to ESPN, "X" marks the spot.
Xtreme Growth
In the early 1990's executives at ESPN took note of an emerging trend among our adolescents and teenagers, especially the boys. At a rapidly growing pace, the underground world of so-called "extreme" sports was beginning to catch on with the youth of America. More and more kids were laying down their leather baseball gloves and picking up a skateboard, BMX trick bike or pair of RollerBlades and taking to the streets, parks, schoolyards and driveways. Around that same time, ski resorts across America were enduring an extreme "invasion" of their own from a new technology and a new breed of downhill dare devils. The modern day snowboard had exploded in popularity among young skiers in the early 90's, and the pioneering generation of snowboarders were looked upon with disdain by the older skiing establishment who saw these young winter rebels as a rude, reckless bunch of marauders who were ruining the serenity of the ski slopes everywhere. Of course, this perception only added to the appeal and fueled the growth of snowboarding.
Recognizing a potential marketing bonanza among a youth movement who also represented a good chunk of purchasing power (just ask the makers of Mountain Dew and Red Bull), ESPN rolled out their first X Games in 1995, followed by their first Winter X Games in 1997. The history of its successful growth speaks for itself. ESPN just wrapped up their 14th Winter X Games which, once again, set new records for viewership and attendance. Over 43 million viewers tuned in to watch Shaun White and other Generation Y celebrities "Dew" their stuff, while a record number (over 84,000) of attendees got to soak in the (sub) culture in person at Aspen, Colorado. To understand the wild success of the X Games is to understand the dramatically different psyche of a new generation of youth. And if we understand that, we will no longer scratch our heads at the mass exodus from organized sports by our teenage kids. It all adds up.
For the past 10 years, while traditional sports participation has stagnated, the fastest growing sport in America has been....you guessed it, skateboarding. And right behind that? Snowboarding. So what's the appeal? Well the probable answer is that extreme, or X sports represent the exact antithesis to the average kid's experience with a traditional organized sports program; an experience which by many accounts has not been a very positive one. Consider the contrast. Where traditional youth sports are organized, highly structured and run by adults, the X sports are disorganized, unstructured and have virtually no adult involvement whatsoever. Where traditional sports emphasize a team's winning and celebrate the more highly skilled athlete with adult praise, more coveted positions and larger shares of playing time, the X sports promote individuality, eliminate the stress and anxiety of individual success and failure, and allow equal participation by every athlete regardless of skill (or whose dad might be coaching). Best of all, X sports are "their" sports, not "ours." They are sports created by kids for the benefit of kids; for kids to have fun, to play and to be free of the adult microscope and judgment. With no parent standing on the sidelines ready to criticize the first time they fall off their board, X sports have put the concepts of "fun" and "play" back in to the world of games. No wonder why kids continue to flock there in record numbers.
In a society where organized sports have come to dominate our kids' recreational activity, rendering "pick-up play" almost extinct, we can actually learn a lot from this extreme sports trend. If we are going to continue to funnel our kids' recreational activities through these organizations then we should insist that the organizations utilize an approach that is consistent with what kids really want out of sports (not what adults want out of them). Every survey I've ever seen on why kids play sports reveals the same priority of motives: fun, friendship and the desire to "play." The goals of winning and advanced skill-building consistently fall to the bottom of these lists. If we want to keep these kids in the "game" then we need to align the objectives of coaches, parents and youth sports organizations with those of the kids. If we don't, then the mass immigration to X sports will certainly continue. And that's just fine with ESPN.
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